U.S. patent number 9,030,336 [Application Number 13/179,407] was granted by the patent office on 2015-05-12 for method and apparatus for obtaining weather information from road-going vehicles.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Omnitracs, LLC. The grantee listed for this patent is Marquis D. Doyle. Invention is credited to Marquis D. Doyle.
United States Patent |
9,030,336 |
Doyle |
May 12, 2015 |
Method and apparatus for obtaining weather information from
road-going vehicles
Abstract
In one embodiment taught herein, a plurality of road-going
vehicles report weather-related data to a weather-determining
system. For example, trucks and/or cars having in-vehicle
information systems wirelessly transmit one or more items of
weather-related data, such that the weather-determining system
directly or indirectly receives the transmitted data. In turn, the
weather-determining system jointly processes the weather-related
data to determine weather information for one or more geographic
areas corresponding to reported positions of the road-going
vehicles. In one embodiment, the in-vehicle information systems
comprise GPS-based position reporting systems installed in
on-highway trucks and other fleet vehicles, and the
weather-determining system comprises a modified position-tracking
system, e.g., a modified network fleet management system.
Weather-related data may be collected and processed for large
numbers of vehicles across many geographic areas of interest, and
the resulting weather information can be fed back to the road-going
vehicles and/or provided to other consumers of weather
information.
Inventors: |
Doyle; Marquis D. (Clemmons,
NC) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Doyle; Marquis D. |
Clemmons |
NC |
US |
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Assignee: |
Omnitracs, LLC (Dallas,
TX)
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Family
ID: |
39028596 |
Appl.
No.: |
13/179,407 |
Filed: |
July 8, 2011 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20120179375 A1 |
Jul 12, 2012 |
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Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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11498971 |
Aug 2, 2006 |
7999702 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
340/995.13;
702/3; 340/995.12; 340/539.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G08G
1/0962 (20130101); G08G 1/20 (20130101); G01W
1/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G08G
1/123 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;340/539.1,995.12,995.13,601,602 ;702/3 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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1207370 |
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May 2002 |
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EP |
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1321742 |
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Jun 2003 |
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EP |
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0221479 |
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Mar 2002 |
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WO |
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Other References
International Search Report--PCT/US07/074673, International Search
Authority, European Patent Office, Mar. 18, 2008. cited by
applicant .
Written Opinion--PCT/US07/074673, International Searching
Authority--European Patent Office, Mar. 18, 2008. cited by
applicant.
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Primary Examiner: Lim; Steven
Assistant Examiner: Fan; Hongmin
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Arent Fox LLP
Parent Case Text
This application is a Continuation of pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/498,971 filed Aug. 2, 2006.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method of determining weather information comprising:
receiving weather-related data from a plurality of road-going
vehicles; and processing the weather-related data to determine
weather information for one or more geographic areas corresponding
to reported positions of the road-going vehicles, wherein the
processing includes processing of vehicle equipment operation data
based on a desired statistical confidence level and a minimum
sample set size of road-going vehicles being included in the
plurality of road-going vehicles, and wherein the processing
further comprises using time-based weighting of reported windshield
wiper speeds to generate precipitation-related weather information
as an aggregate of individually reported wiper speed data.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the weather-related
data to determine weather information for one or more geographic
areas corresponding to reported positions of the plurality of
road-going vehicles comprises jointly processing the
weather-related data received from two or more road-going vehicles
for a given geographic area to determine statistically reliable
weather information for that given geographic area.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the weather-related
data to determine weather information for one or more geographic
areas corresponding to reported positions of the road going
vehicles comprises statistically processing one or more like items
of weather-related data collected for a same geographic area by two
or more of the plurality of road-going vehicles, to thereby
determine statistically reliable weather information for that
geographic area.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles comprises receiving the
weather-related data at a network management center having
persistent or non-persistent communication links with the plurality
of road-going vehicles.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles comprises receiving reports
from the plurality of road-going vehicles that include
position-related data and corresponding weather-related data.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles comprises generally
receiving periodic mobile initiated position reports (MIPRs) from
each road-going vehicle, wherein the MIPRs include one or more
items of weather-related data in addition to position-related
data.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles comprises, for a given one
of the road-going vehicles, receiving one or more of
temperature-related data and precipitation-related data.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving one or more of
temperature-related data and precipitation-related data comprises
receiving ambient temperature readings obtained from a
vehicle-based information system.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving one or more of
temperature-related data and precipitation-related data comprises
receiving wiper speed information obtained from a vehicle-based
information system, and inferring a precipitation condition from
the wiper speed information.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles comprises receiving wiper
speed data from one or more road-going vehicles in a given
geographic area, and wherein processing the weather-related data to
determine weather information for one or more geographic areas
corresponding to reported positions of the road-going vehicles
comprises inferring precipitation conditions for the given
geographic area based on the wiper speed data.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles comprises receiving ambient
temperature data and wiper speed data from one or more road-going
vehicles in a given geographic area, and wherein processing the
weather-related data to determine weather information for one or
more geographic areas corresponding to reported positions of the
road going vehicles comprises inferring freezing precipitation
conditions, or a risk thereof, for the given geographic area based
on the ambient temperature data and the wiper speed data.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles comprises receiving ambient
temperature data, wiper speed data, and Antilock Braking System
(ABS) data from one or more road-going vehicles in a given
geographic area, and wherein processing the weather-related data to
determine weather information for one or more geographic areas
corresponding to reported positions of the road going vehicles
comprises inferring freezing precipitation conditions, or a risk
thereof, for the given geographic area based on the ambient
temperature data, the ABS data, and the wiper speed data.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving weather-related data
from a plurality of road-going vehicles includes receiving Antilock
Braking System (ABS) related data from one or more road-going
vehicles in a given geographic area, and wherein processing the
weather-related data to determine weather information for one or
more geographic areas corresponding to reported positions of the
road-going vehicles comprises inferring hazardous road conditions
for the given geographic area based at least in part on the ABS
related data.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the weather-related
data to determine weather information for one or more geographic
areas corresponding to reported positions of the plurality of the
road-going vehicles comprises jointly processing the
weather-related data received from two or more road-going vehicles
for a given geographic area and evaluating consistency or disparity
in the collected weather-related measurements to determine
statistically reliable weather information for that given
geographic area.
15. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing one or more
weather information output feeds to at least one of the road-going
vehicles, wherein the weather information output feeds indicate the
determined weather information for at least one of the one or more
geographic areas.
Description
BACKGROUND
1. Field
The present invention relates generally to weather information, and
more specifically to obtaining weather information from road-going
vehicles.
2. Background
Countless numbers of trucks ply the highways every day, both in
North America and elsewhere around the world. At any given moment,
there may be tens, hundreds, or even thousands of trucks on the
road in any given geographic area.
Increasingly, trucks and other road-going vehicles include vehicle
information systems that track and report vehicle position
information. Such systems generally have wireless communication
links with one or more monitoring facilities, such as a centralized
Network Management Center (NMC). Satellite and/or terrestrial
communication networks typically provide the communication links
between the in-vehicle systems and the NMCs.
Position data provides fleet operators with real-time or near
real-time monitoring of route progress, and greatly aids vehicle
dispatching and management operations. Concomitant benefits include
increased driver safety and vehicle/load security. As one example,
QUALCOMM offers comprehensive fleet management services to fleet
operators, and provides a relatively rich array of in-vehicle
systems and related equipment, along with the software applications
and NMC services needed to exploit the collection of positional
data from potentially large fleets of road-going vehicles.
However, in-vehicle data collection and corresponding aggregate
data processing has not heretofore exploited richer data collection
opportunities, such as weather-related data collection and
processing. There is therefore a need in the art for more fully
exploiting the ability to collect and process information from
road-going vehicles.
SUMMARY
Embodiments disclosed herein address the above stated and other
needs by reporting weather-related data from road-going vehicles to
a weather-determining system that processes the data to obtain
weather information. In one aspect, a method of reporting weather
data from a road-going vehicle comprises determining
weather-related data in conjunction with determining geographic
positions of the road-going vehicle, and reporting the
weather-related data for the determined geographic positions to a
remote weather-determining system. By way of non-limiting example,
an in-vehicle information system obtains weather-related
measurements and reports such measurements directly or indirectly
to the weather-determining system, such as by satellite or cellular
communication links.
Correspondingly, in another aspect disclosed herein, a method of
determining weather information comprises receiving weather-related
data from a plurality of road-going vehicles, and processing the
weather-related data to determine weather information for one or
more geographic areas corresponding to reported positions of the
road going vehicles. Such processing comprises, for example, joint
processing wherein weather-related data reported by multiple
road-going vehicles for the same or similar times and geographic
areas are processed together. By way of non-limiting example,
weather-related data collected for the same times and areas are
processed together by the weather-determining system to obtain
statistically reliable weather information. However determined, the
resulting weather information can be fed back to the road-going
vehicles and/or provided to other consumers of weather information
on subscription or on-demand basis.
As another non-limiting example, the weather-determining system may
comprise a suitably modified position-tracking system, such as may
be pre-existing at a network-based fleet management center.
Complementing such aspects, the in-vehicle information systems
providing weather-related data reports may comprise suitably
modified, in-vehicle position-tracking systems, such as would be
installed in long-haul trucks and other highway vehicles. Indeed,
in one or more aspects taught herein, existing vehicle sensor data
and other information is exploited to measure or infer weather data
in a road-going vehicle, such that existing position-tracking and
other types of in-vehicle information systems may be configured to
report weather-related data without need for adding additional
sensors, etc. However, sensors may be added as needed or
desired.
Of course, the present invention is not limited to the above
features and advantages. Those skilled in the art will recognize
additional features and advantages upon reading the following
detailed description, and viewing the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a
weather-determining system having direct or indirect communication
links with a number of road-going vehicles in one or more
geographic areas;
FIG. 2 is a logic flow diagram of one embodiment of processing
logic for an in-vehicle information system configured to provide
weather data from a road-going vehicle to a remote
weather-determining system;
FIG. 3 is a diagram of one embodiment of a weather data message
reported by an in-vehicle information system to a remote
weather-determining system;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an in-vehicle
information system configured to provide weather data from a
road-going vehicle to a remote weather-determining system;
FIG. 5 is a logic flow diagram of one embodiment of processing
logic for a weather-determining system configured to determine
weather information based on receiving weather data from a
plurality of road-going vehicles;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a
weather-determining system configured to determine weather
information based on receiving weather data from a plurality of
road-going vehicles;
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of one embodiment of functional
processing logic for determining precipitation-related weather
information based on processing wiper speed information from a
plurality of road-going vehicles; and
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one embodiment of functional
processing logic for determining weather information from weather
data reported by a plurality of road-going vehicles.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
FIG. 1 illustrates a weather-determining system 10 having direct or
indirect communication links to a plurality of road-going vehicles
12 that are configured to report weather data to the
weather-determining system 10. In turn, the weather-determining
system 10 processes the reported weather data to determine weather
information for one or more geographic regions. For example, by
exploiting reported weather data from the tens, hundreds, or even
thousands of road-going vehicles 12 in any given geographic area of
the world--city, county, etc.--the weather-determining system 10
can determine statistically reliable and richly detailed weather
information for that given area. Effectively, the plurality of
road-going vehicles 12 operate as a distributed system of thousands
or hundreds of thousands of rolling weather stations providing
real-time or near real-time weather data.
The road-going vehicles 12 may be individually owned vehicles
and/or commercial or private fleet vehicles. In general, each of
the road-going vehicles includes a vehicle information system, such
as a GPS tracking system, vehicle telematics system, etc. For
example, in one or more embodiments, at least some of the
road-going vehicles 12 are commercial or private fleet trucks
equipped with communicatively linked position-tracking systems,
e.g., a GPS-based tracking and reporting system, such as a version
of QUALCOMM's OMNITRACS mobile tracking and communication system
for fleet management. In the same or other embodiments, at least
some of the vehicles may be privately owned cars or other light
duty vehicles equipped with a vehicle telematics system, such as
ONSTAR.
Each road-going vehicle 12 has persistent or non-persistent
communication links to the weather-determining system 10. For
example, some types of in-vehicle information systems include
satellite-based communication modules--satellite data modems--that
provide persistent connections between a road-going vehicle 12 and
the remote weather-determining system 10 via one or more satellites
14. Other types of in-vehicle information systems additionally or
alternatively use terrestrial communication links, such as cellular
communication links via one or more private or commercial cellular
networks 16. In any case, this discussion assumes that individual
ones of the road-going vehicles 12 have some means of reporting
weather-related data directly or indirectly to the
weather-determining system 10.
In that context, FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of processing
logic for an in-vehicle information system configured to provide
weather data from a road-going vehicle 12. Those skilled in the art
will appreciate that the illustrated processing logic may be
embodied in hardware, software, or any mix thereof, and may
represent just one of potentially many processing tasks being
carried out sequentially or concurrently. In one example, the
illustrated processing logic executes on a timed interval, such as
every minute, every five minutes, etc. Also, those of skill will
appreciate that the processing logic illustrated in FIG. 2, and in
other logic or processing flow diagrams discussed herein, does not
necessarily imply a fixed order. Thus, in at least some cases, the
illustrated method steps or actions can be interchanged without
departing from the present invention.
With the above points in mind, the illustrated processing "begins"
with determining weather-related data in conjunction with
determining positions of the road-going vehicle (Step 100). This
processing step reflects the general need to correlate collected
weather data with the corresponding geographic location. Given that
the in-vehicle information system collecting such weather data may
be a suitably modified GPS-based vehicle tracking system, such
geographic location is readily available and, likely, is already
being reported to a remote tracking system on a regular or
as-needed basis.
Thus, processing continues with reporting the weather-related data
for the determined geographic positions to a remote
weather-determining system (Step 102), e.g., the
weather-determining system 10. In one embodiment, weather-related
data is collected at a first time interval, locally stored, and
then batch-reported at second, longer time interval. In another
embodiment, weather-related data is reported at the collection
rate, e.g., every minute, every five minutes, etc. Those skilled in
the art will appreciate that such details can be varied depending
on, for example, the economics of frequent but short reports versus
less frequent but longer reports, local data storage capabilities,
and the desirability of having real-time or near real-time
weather-related data at the weather-determining system 10. Further,
at least some of the road-going vehicles 12 may use different
reporting intervals and even different report types/formats.
FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a weather data report message
17 sent by a road-going vehicle 12, wherein corresponding time and
position-related data accompany weather-related data from one or
more collection intervals. In this way, the weather-determining
system 10 receives one or more items of weather-related data, along
with corresponding time-stamp and geographic position data. In at
least one embodiment, one or more of the road-going vehicles 12
send Mobile Initiated Position Reports (MIPRs) according to a
desired reporting interval, e.g., every five minutes. According to
one or more embodiments taught herein, MIPRs are used to convey
weather-related data to the weather-determining system 10.
Note that weather-related data may be added to every MIPR reported
by a given road-going vehicle 12, or to selected MIPRs. In such
contexts, and in general, reducing or minimizing the amount of data
needed to convey the weather-related data yields communication
advantages. Limiting the number of different parameters collected
and reported as weather-related data represents one solution for
controlling communication bandwidth and/or on-air time. Of course,
various data compression techniques may be used, depending upon the
overall economics of the communication links, and on the
capabilities of the in-vehicle information systems, which could
differ among vehicles.
FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a in-vehicle information
system 18 that is configured for installation in a road-going
vehicle 12, and configured to report weather-related data to a
remote weather-determining system 10. The illustrated in-vehicle
information system 18 comprises a processing system 20, also
referred to as a Mobile Application Server or "MAS." In one
embodiment, the processing system 20 comprises a computer system
having one or more microprocessors and associated memory, and is
configured to run WINDOWS CE or some other suitable operating
system, such as LINUX, QNX, etc. Further, the processing system 20
generally is provisioned with one or more application programs,
providing position-tracking functions, navigation assistance,
driver information and communication functions, along with
weather-data collection and reporting functions.
In support of these and other functions, the in-vehicle information
system 18 further includes or is associated with a number of other
sub-systems and interfaces. In the illustrated embodiment, the
in-vehicle information system 18 includes or is associated with one
or more wireless communication interfaces 22, which may include a
Satellite Data Modem (SDM) and/or a cellular communications
transceiver, a GPS/Navigation sub-system 24, a discrete signal
interface 26, a vehicle data bus interface 28, and an operator
interface 30, also referred to as a Mobile Display Unit or
"MDU."
The one or more wireless communication interfaces 22 provide direct
or indirect communication links to the remote weather-determining
system 10, and such links may be persistent or non-persistent.
These communications links also may provide for incoming data
feeds, such as various driver information feeds.
Of course, to report weather-related data, the in-vehicle
information system 18 first must collect such data via one or more
corresponding measurements. In one embodiment, in-vehicle
information system 18 includes or is associated with a number of
relevant sensors, e.g., one or more of a temperature sensor, a
precipitation sensor, a humidity sensor, and a barometric pressure
sensor. Such sensors may be analog, digital, or any mix thereof,
and the discrete signal interface 26 is configured accordingly,
i.e., to receive the corresponding analog or digital signals. In
one embodiment, the discrete signal interface 26 provides digital
data to the processing system 20 corresponding to discrete
weather-data input signals.
Of course, there are monetary and practical disadvantages
associated with requiring the road-going vehicles 12 to carry
dedicated weather-sensing equipment. Indeed, one or more
embodiments taught herein exploit indirect (inferential) sensing of
weather-related data and/or make advantageous use of sensor
information already available on the typical road-going vehicle 12.
In one example of inferential sensing of weather-related data, the
discrete signal interface 26, or the vehicle data bus interface 28,
is configured to receive windshield wiper speed data, e.g., on/off,
fast/slow/intermittent, etc. In turn, the processing system 20
infers precipitation-related data from the wiper speed
information.
Inferential sensing also may include the sensing of Antilock
Braking System (ABS) related data, which is relevant to sensing
icing and other slick/hazardous road conditions. In one embodiment,
the discrete signal interface 26 receives ABS-related data. For
example, the same discrete signal used to activate a dashboard or
other driving-warning indicator regarding ABS activity can be
sensed via the discrete interface 26 as an indication of ABS
activity. In another embodiment, the in-vehicle information system
18 receives ABS-related data via the vehicle data bus interface 28.
Notably, in at least one embodiment, the in-vehicle information
system 18 receives temperature-related data, precipitation-related
data (e.g., wiper speed data), and ABS/braking-related data, and
thereby supports relatively rich inferential-based weather
information determination by the weather-determining system 10.
In other words, at least one embodiment of the in-vehicle
information system 18 as taught herein adds weather-related data
reporting capabilities to a given road-going vehicle 12, while
requiring little or no new wiring and no added sensors. For
example, most late-model vehicles include sophisticated engine and
vehicle management systems, which provide accurate ambient
temperature sensing. These already-available temperature
measurements can be provided to the in-vehicle information system
18 via the vehicle bus data interface 28, for use in
weather-related data reporting. Likewise, many engine management
and/or driver information systems monitor humidity, and other
parameters relevant to weather conditions, and any or all such data
may be routed to the in-vehicle information system 18, which may
pass along such data via its reporting capabilities, or pre-process
such data as needed or desired for weather-related data
reporting.
In at least one particular embodiment taught herein, the vehicle
data bus interface 28 comprises a "J-BUS" interface, wherein
"J-BUS" denotes the heavy vehicle data bus standards promulgated by
the Society of Automotive Engineers, more commonly known as the
"SAE." For example, the vehicle data bus interface 28 can be
configured to monitor for temperature and other weather-related
data messages in accordance with the J1587 standard, which defines
J-BUS message types and formats. (Note that very accurate ambient
temperature readings may be obtained by receiving inlet engine air
temperature readings via the J-BUS or other truck data bus, as most
trucks "snorkel" fresh air from outside their engine
compartments.)
Of course, differently configured vehicle data bus interfaces 28
can be provided and used, as needed for different types of
road-going vehicles 12. That is, the configuration of the
in-vehicle information system 18 may be different for a passenger
car or light-duty truck installation, than it would be for a
long-haul trailer tractor installation. However, those skilled in
the art will appreciate that all or most of the configuration
variations of the in-vehicle information systems 18 may be
transparent to the weather-determining system 10.
In at least one embodiment, the weather-determining system 10
comprises a network management center processing system. Thus, the
weather-determining system 10 may comprise a modified version of a
pre-existing fleet management processing system already having
vehicle position tracking, route monitoring, and overall fleet
management capabilities.
Whether implemented as a standalone system, or integrated with a
pre-existing fleet management system, FIG. 5 illustrates one
embodiment of processing logic for the weather-determining system
10. Such processing may represent a small part of a larger, overall
processing routine, and may be implemented in hardware, software,
or any combination thereof.
With those points in mind, weather information processing "begins"
with receiving weather-related data from a plurality of road-going
vehicles 12 (Step 110). Operations continue with the
weather-determining system 10 processing the received
weather-related data to determine weather information for one or
more geographic areas corresponding to the reported positions of
the road-going vehicles 12 (Step 112).
Complementing the processing of FIG. 5, FIG. 6 illustrates one
embodiment of the weather-determining system 10, which, again, may
comprise all or part of a network management center processing
system that is also configured for vehicle position tracking, route
monitoring, and other fleet management operations. In any case, the
illustrated weather-determining system 10 comprises one or more
processing systems 40, one or more communication interfaces 42,
local control and monitoring interfaces 44, and one or more
additional communication interfaces 46.
In at least one embodiment, the communication interfaces 42 provide
direct or indirect communication links to the satellite and/or
cellular based communications of the road-going vehicles 12. Such
links may include one or more satellite ground station connections,
one or more cellular network connections, and/or Internet or other
data network connections. Further, the additional communication
interfaces 46, which may be integrated with or share resources with
the communication interfaces 42, can be configured to provide
communications with, for example, third-party providers of weather
information, and with other would-be consumers of the weather
information determined by the weather-determining system 10.
Indeed, in one embodiment, the weather-determining system 10 is
configured to provide one or more weather information output feeds.
Such feeds can be sent back to all of the road-going vehicles, or
at least to targeted road-going vehicles. For example, the
weather-determining system 10 can be configured to determine the
relevancy of weather information for a given geographic region,
with respect to given ones of the road-going vehicles. Such
relevancy may be determined for any given road-going vehicle 12
based on its current location, its known or reported route
information, its current or last-reported speed, direction, etc. In
at least one embodiment, the weather-determining system 10 is
provisioned with subscriber information, identifying individual
vehicle owners and/or vehicle fleet owners that are subscribed to
weather information services, and the weather-determining system 10
provides relevant weather information feeds directly or indirectly
to the in-vehicle information systems 18 of the subscribers'
vehicles 12.
Further, the weather-determining system 10 may be configured to
provide one or more weather information feeds to third-party
providers of weather information, such as TELEATLAS, and various
national and local weather and news organizations, e.g., radio and
television news organizations. In at least one such embodiment, an
operator of the weather-determining system sells subscription
and/or on-demand access to one or more weather information feeds
provided by the weather-determining system 10. Such feeds generally
will be tailored to a given target audience, which may be
determined by geographic region of interest, and/or activities of
interest.
Moreover, the weather-determining system 10 may determine weather
information for all geographic areas from which it receives
weather-data reports, or it may confine its weather information
determination processing to one or more selected geographic areas
of particular interest. Similarly, it may perform weather
information determination on a more detailed, or on a more
frequently updated basis for some geographic areas, as compared to
others.
For example, the weather-determining system 10 can be configured to
recognize developing severe weather patterns and/or to recognize
other anomalies, such as unusually low reported highway speeds,
areas associated with natural disasters, etc. Further, the
weather-determining system 10 may be configured to vary its
weather-determining processing for given geographic areas based on
time-of-day, and/or based on the number of actively reporting
road-going vehicles 12 within any given geographic area. As one
example of this latter processing modification, the
weather-determining system 10 may be configured to perform
relatively frequent or relatively richly detailed weather
information determination for a geographic area having a relatively
large number of reporting vehicles 12. Conversely, the
weather-determining system 10 would perform relatively infrequent
or relatively basic weather information determination for a
geographic area having a relatively small number of reporting
vehicles 12.
In such contexts, the definitions of "large" and "small" vehicle
numbers may be set according to statistical processing
considerations. For example, the determination that it is or is not
raining in a given geographic area, or the determination of how
hard it is raining in that area, may be made according to a desired
statistical confidence level only if a minimum sample set size of
reporting vehicles 12 is in that particular area. Statistical
reliability thus may be determined based on the sample set size.
Additionally, or alternatively, statistical reliability may be
determined based on evaluating the consistency or disparity in the
weather-related data reported from a given area. Of course, in one
or more embodiments, the weather-determining system 10 can be
configured to determine weather information using whatever reported
weather-data is available, but to mark or otherwise indicate the
reliability or confidence level associated with such weather
information as a function of the number of vehicles 12 involved in
reporting the underlying weather-related data.
FIG. 7 illustrates functional processing elements configured for a
particular embodiment of weather-related data processing by the
weather-determining system 10. Specifically, a
precipitation-related weather information processing function 50
includes a preliminary statistical processing function 52, and an
optional qualification/correlation processing function 54.
In overall terms, the processing function 50 is configured to
determine precipitation-related weather information based on
receiving wiper speed data as all or part of the weather-related
data reported by a given number of road-going vehicles 12 in a
given geographic area--illustrated as wiper data from vehicles V1
through VN. (Note that the same function, or duplicates of this
function, process similar data reported for other geographic areas,
and further note that the processing system 40 of the
weather-determining system 10 may execute multiple other weather
data processing functions.)
In one embodiment, the preliminary statistical processing function
52 performs statistical processing of the wiper data, such as by
performing a majority vote decision related to the number of
vehicles 12 reporting wiper on versus wiper off conditions.
Additionally, or alternatively, it may evaluate how many vehicles
12 report wiper speeds at or above one or more thresholds, and it
may use time-based weighting of the reported speeds to generate
precipitation-related weather information as an aggregate of the
individually reported wiper speed data.
Further, the processing function 50 may include, or selectively
activate, optional qualification/correlation processing via the
illustrated qualification/correlation processing function 54, or
alternatives thereof. As just one example, the processing function
50 may qualify or further nuance the wiper speed data by
correlating such data with related reported data, such as reported
road speeds and temperature. Road speed, for example, serves as a
secondary indicator of rain and its severity. Temperature, on the
other hand, does not necessarily indicate anything about the
severity of precipitation, but in combination with
precipitation-related data provides a basis for the
weather-determining system 10 to infer snow and icing conditions.
Notably, ABS-related data provides an alternative or additional
data item that can be used in conjunction with received ambient
temperature data and wiper speed data, to more accurately infer
freezing precipitation and/or hazardous road conditions.
As a more general example of weather-data processing, FIG. 8
depicts a computer program 60, such as may be used to implement the
desired weather information determination functions in the one or
more processing systems 40 of the weather-determining system 10.
Momentarily referring back to FIG. 7, it will be understood that
the computer program 60 may implement the processing functions of
FIG. 7.
In any case, FIG. 8 illustrates a data aggregator 62, which
pre-processes the incoming weather-related data, such that it is
broken out by geographic area of interest, and, optionally, broken
out by report type and/or data types. In turn, a joint data
processor 64 jointly processes the weather-related data, as
aggregated by the data aggregator 62 for one or more geographic
areas of interest. An output weather information processor 66 may
be configured to format all or part of the determined weather
information for output as weather information feeds, such as to
third party providers, return feedback to selected ones of the
road-going vehicles 12, etc. As such, one embodiment of the output
weather information processor 66 functionally interfaces with the
communication interfaces 42 and/or additional communication network
interfaces 46 depicted in FIG. 6.
The reliability and detail of such weather information is enhanced
by joint data processing. Joint data processing may involve, for
example, processing one or more like items of weather-related data
collected from the same given geographic area, over the same or
similar time periods. Thus, joint processing may entail
collectively processing reported temperatures collected from
different ones of the road-going vehicles 12, for the same time
frame and geographic area, to obtain an average temperature reading
for the area. Additionally, or alternatively, such data may be
jointly processed to identify temperature deviations and gradients
across the area, rates of change, etc.
Of course, one or more embodiments of joint weather-related data
processing comprise or otherwise include the statistical processing
and optional qualification/correlation processing described earlier
herein. Indeed, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the
teachings herein contemplate multiple variations of weather-related
data processing and subsequent weather information output by the
weather-determining system 10. Similarly, the teachings herein
contemplate multiple variations of in-vehicle information systems
18, and the associated types and amounts of weather-related data
reported from the road-going vehicles 12.
As further points of flexibility, those of skill in the art would
understand that information and signals described herein may be
represented using any of a variety of different technologies and
techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,
signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout
the above description may be represented by voltages, currents,
electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields
or particles, or any combination thereof.
Those of skill would further appreciate that the various
illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps
described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may
be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or
combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability
of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks,
modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in
terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is
implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular
application and design constraints imposed on the overall system.
Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in
varying ways for each particular application, but such
implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a
departure from the scope of the present invention.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits
described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may
be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a
Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated
Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other
programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic,
discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed
to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose
processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the
processor may be any conventional processor, controller,
microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be
implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a
combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of
microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a
DSP core, or any other such configuration.
The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the
embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware,
in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination
of the two. A software module may reside in Random Access Memory
(RAM), flash memory, Read Only Memory (ROM), Electrically
Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM
(EEPROM), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any
other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage
medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read
information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In
the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the
processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an
ASIC.
Thus, with all of the above points regarding implementation
flexibility in mind, the foregoing description of the disclosed
embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to
make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these
embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art,
and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other
embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the
invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be
limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the
widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features
disclosed herein. As such, the present invention is not limited by
the foregoing discussion, or by the accompanying drawings. Indeed,
the present invention is limited only by the following claims and
their legal equivalents.
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